U.S. tanks and troops rolled back into the center of Najaf and battled with Shiite militants Sunday, reigniting violence in the holy city just as delegates in Baghdad opened a conference meant to be a landmark in the country’s movement toward democracy.
The collapse of the cease fire in Najaf after the failure of negotiations cast a shadow over the National Conference in Baghdad, which gathered 1,000 religious, tribal and political leaders from across Iraq. Some of the delegates threatened to walk out unless the government of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi put an end to the fighting.
In more of the violence plaguing the country, insurgents fired a mortar barrage hours after the conference opened–apparently targeting Baghdad’s Green Zone district where the gathering was taking place but instead hitting a commuter bus station, killing two people and wounding 17 others, according to the Health Ministry.
Also in Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier hours before the conference began. At least 931 U.S. service members have died in Iraq since March 2003.
In the volatile Sunni city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, U.S. warplanes bombed three neighborhoods Sunday afternoon, killing five civilians and wounding six others, said, Dr. Adil Khamis, of Fallujah General Hospital.
After the government pulled out of negotiations the day before, U.S. armored troop carriers and tanks Sunday morning moved back into the center of Najaf, where al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia has been in control of the Old City.
Dozens of explosions from tank shells and mortars as well as constant small-arms fire shook Najaf’s vast cemetery, where Mahdi Army fighters have been battling U.S. troops amid the tombs since the violence first broke out Aug. 5.
An explosion, believed to be from a tank round, landed near the outer wall of the compound housing the revered Imam Ali Shrine, the militants’ informal headquarters and Iraq’s holiest Shiite site, said al-Sadr aide Ahmed al-Shaibany. “The shrine was not hit,” he said.
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Compiled from news services and edited by Patrick Olsen (polsen@tribune.com) and Michael Morgan (mnmorgan@tribune.com)
